The Lover & The Lookout

The Lover and the Lookout is an interactive lighting installation that plays on ideas of surveillance and searchlight systems.

An unmanned spotlight randomly scanning a public area detects people when they walk down a certain path. The spotlight begins to follow the people walking, soon revealing its character as it starts to play it’s own game, finding people, scanning between them, and leading them in various directions along the path.

This version of the work has been created using a custom-made infra-red lighting system, arduino, a webcam, an intelligent spotlight and software Python, arduino and Open CV. In the most basic version of the 'game', the program detects when people are in front of the lights and sends the spotlight to that same location. When two or more IR lights are blocked, more complex programs/games kick in. Created by Shades Arcade with the expertise of Nicolas Woollaston & the support of Fab Lab Chch.